Masscob

I must confess, I have a serious problem with buying coats. I now have a family of at least 8 spread across various wardrobes, and last weekend they gained a new sibling.

Now, just to explain, last weekend I went back home so that I could work and earn some extra money. But unfortunately, I work in a designer outlet, which somehow transforms even the poorest student's mindset into one that believes that £165 is a reasonable price for an item of clothing. So over the course of the weekend, rather than gaining lots of money, I lost a significant portion of my student loan and instead came home with a beautiful beautiful beautiful coat.

The coat is from a Spanish brand called Masscob, and if you look carefully you can see my coat in their Autumn/Winter lookbook. Mmmm-mmm. According to the website...

 "Marga and Jacobo (the designers) just follow their instinct, they don´t have a precise point of inspiration. Their designs emerge spontaneously and do not follow any predetermined process, sometimes just a substance of a fabric or a vintage detail it’s the beginning for a new collection."

I can certainly see vintage details shining through the design - the cut on the shoulders is a particular favourite of mine, as of course is the pretty peter-pan collar detail (how very predictable of me). In any case, I feel chic and sophisticated when I'm wearing it, if a little scared it might get damaged (it officially retails at £331). And as such, I have named it 'The Paris Coat' for my impending year abroad starting next year.

I have been a bit absent from Sadie's Wardrobe lately, but that's because I have been busy working on various other blogging projects! One of which is for Oxfam Fashion - you can find my first article here! The other project is a new paid job I have sort of stumbled into... but more on that at a later time!

Sadie xxx

TheWellingtonBoot.com giveaway winner!

Thanks to anyone who entered the $15 voucher giveaway for TheWellingtonBoot.com!

I have just selected the winner, using a random number generator, and I'm pleased to announce that the winner is comment number 14, 'Miss Congeniality'!

I will be sending an email to you shortly :).

Sadie xxx

Dungarees

For my birthday, I received a generous £30 voucher from my friends (thanks guys)! I was pondering how to spend it for about a month, thinking I should probably buy something for my impending 'year abroad' work placement, but in the end I came away with these dungarees. I've wanted a new pair of dungarees for ages - I do have an old ill-fitting chambray pair, but these ones are much smarter (very APC, don't you think?). Anyway, after buying them I wore them for 4 days straight. That is a testament to how comfy and easy-to-style they are!

I wouldn't have naturally thought to pair them with this shirt, bought at the vintage shop I mentioned previously for £4, but by some happy accident they found themselves together when I was trying on my 'purchases of the day' to show my housemates. I rather like the combination - I feel like I should be on the set of 'The Good Life', especially with my rather wild-looking morning hair and 70s satchel.

On the subject of hair... I'm definitely due for a hair-cut soon... haha. The reason it's so volumised is because I'd just blowdryed it properly, in a hope that its 'settled state' would be a little less flat than usual. My hair doesn't like to co-operate though.

This may well be the last thing I buy from a proper shop for a very long time... I've had what could be described as an 'ethical fashion epiphany' since reading Lucy Siegle's To Die For, and now feel like I should be doing more to help stop morally corrupt practices in fast fashion production. But more on that in a later post.

In other news, I have just been accepted as an official blogger for Oxfam Fashion - which is basically my dream job!! I am really really pleased and excited about the next few months! If you are interested, you will be able to find my articles here - I'd highly recommend visiting their blog for lots of vintage-related goodness!

And finally - don't forget to enter my giveaway!

Sadie xxx

P.S. I forgot to explain the backdrop to these photos: I live in a large mass of student housing, where builders think it is fine to just chuck all of their rubbish into pathways. Along with the 'classic' stolen traffic cone, I thought it would be a nice unusual setting, to indicate how unglamorous my lifestyle actually is...

Win a $15 voucher for TheWellingtonBoot.com!

Since starting my blog, I have teamed up with jewellery maker Fern Martin once a year to host a giveaway for her online shop, The Wellington Boot. This will be the third year that we've hosted the giveaway - how time flies!

This year, Fern is kindly giving away a $15 voucher to be spent in her Etsy Shop!

I'm always happy to help out independent jewellery makers, who always produce goods that are much more unique and far better made than items you can find on the highstreet. The Wellington Boot certainly ticks all the boxes for me - an online shop filled to the brim with quirky little pieces, all at very affordable prices - perfect for Christmas presents too!

Here are some of my favourite pieces...

How to enter...

Competition Now Closed

To enter, all you have to do is have a look around The Wellington Boot's Etsy Shop and comment on this blog post naming your favourite item! Please include an email address or link to your own blog, so I can contact you if you win.

The winner will be picked using a random number generator at 9pm on Sunday 30th October.

Good luck! :)

Sadie x

Out and About

On Saturday, the boy and I headed into town to have a look around the vintage shops. Digbeth in Birmingham is filled with hidden gems, and on our trip we discovered a shop we had never seen before - a great find as it was filled with extra cheap items (£4 for a blouse... yes please!). I'm a bit fed up with vintage shops charging extortionate prices, so this was a very welcome addition to my list of shopping haunts. The shop had some very pretty displays, including a row of russian dolls keeping an eye on customers from a central table, a pile of retro suitcases, and even an old Biba bag. I love finding places like this on roads I wouldn't usually wander down!

I made a few purchases in Digbeth (no doubt to be featured in a blog post soon!), then we headed to the dreaded Bullring to spend a voucher I received for my birthday. The Bullring is a complete no-go zone on a Saturday... I struggle to comprehend the amount of money that must change hands there in an hour, if the queues for the escalators alone are 15 people long. Seeking a bit of tranquility, we popped down to Selfridges for a nose around at all of the interesting food on the ground floor, as well as a quick look at the really expensive handbags next to the champagne lounge...

Anyway, on our way out, and with the enthusiasm of two excitable young children, we decided to try out a sushi bar! We were watching the conveyer belt go around for a good 15 minutes, waiting for some Vegetable Tempura to pop up, before a kind soul pointed out that you can just request for something if you ask a waitress! Dur. At least the wait allowed me to take (far too many) photos of the conveyer belt. It was very entrancing.

Note to self: brush hair before having photo taken on expensive camera!

If anyone wanted to visit the vintage shop, it can be found at 91 Allison Street, Digbeth, Birmingham. I'd highly recommend it! There is a good little vegetarian café on the same street called Warehouse Café - another favourite of mine.

Sadie xxx

P.S. Stay tuned as I have a giveaway coming up at the end of this week!

Une fille comme tant d'autres

I've been experimenting with a new photo location today! Naturally, I'm far too scared to actually take outfit photos in a public place - it takes me so long to actually compose a shot using a tripod (take a shot, have a look, move a bit, take a shot, have a look, move a bit more... I'm sure you all know the drill) that I don't think I'd be able to cope with the amount of stares I'd receive. So my new back garden will have to do! It's actually rather picturesque - the only draw back is that sometimes the leaves like to balance on your head just as the shot is taking, as is seen below.

As my UK readers will know, we've just had an 'Indian Summer' here. Although I was grateful for the heat, it isn't quite as enjoyable when you have a 2 hour accounting lecture in the hottest room on campus... cue short attention span/almost falling asleep. Despite this weather, I somehow managed to get tonsillitis and a cold, which has left my voice a few hundred octaves lower... hoping it will get better soon!

Anyway, today it was absolutely freezing cold and rainy - good old temperamental Great Britain. I decided to don my favourite vintage pinafore dress along with my River Island coat, in an outfit combination that makes me pretend to myself that I'm in a Francoise Hardy video.

In other news - I've just started a Blogger of the Week feature in my university newspaper. You may recognise my first featured blogger as Liv from whatoliviadid.com - whose blog I can highly recommend! If any of you have any suggestions of other good student bloggers, please do let me know!



Sadie xxx

My New Room

You may remember last year, I posted about decorating my room in university halls. Well, now I've moved out and into a house, into a room double the size and half the price! I've been busy decorating it since moving in, including pinning (yes, pinning) up a feature wall of Anagylpta paper, painted a rich green colour. I'm facing the same problem as last year in that I can't make any major changes to the room, but after a quick re-arrangement of the furniture, bluetacking some lace edging to my mismatched shelves, and of course, filling said shelves with all of my important junk, the place seems more like home.

I've taken a few snaps of my favourite areas of the room (again, as practise with my new lens). Please excuse the lack of sharpness in places - I'm a beginner!

Slightly wrinkled anaglypta! I got so much criticism for this from my parents, who can remember it the first time around, but I think its great! And I think I may have won my mum around...

A little retro hornsea honey pot and another little pot

Some rather dashing little 50s? 60s? 70s? Salt and Pepper pots and a highly flammable lightshade...

My retro sewing machine cover

Pretty little vintage makeup bag, picked up at Clothes Show Live last year

Although you can't see properly, this is a floor standing lamp, found in a local charity shop for £7.50!

I'll be back soon with a proper outfit post - a bit rushed off my feet at the moment with uni things. I'm trying to join more societies this year, and my diary is now full to bursting!

Sadie xxx

20

In the past week I've moved back to uni (along with at least 2 suitcases of clothes), and turned 20! I feel so old... no longer can I have a lie-in with the excuse that I'm a teenager!

I had a bit of an odd birthday, waking up in a completely empty house as none of my housemates had arrived, then going off to uni to help out at a societies fair all day, but it ended well when I met up with the boy and headed to a jazz club.

I've spent most of the week settling into my new house - no more noisy uni halls! - and running to and from campus. I've barely had a chance to use any of the gifts I received, but I thought I'd photograph them as they are all rather photogenic! And of course, it gave me a chance to practise with my new lens :).

In the photo above, I'm wearing a vintage 70s lace blouse, purchased on eBay as a birthday present to myself! It is quite rough to the touch, but I love it all the same and can't wait to style it properly.

Here are a few photos of my other gifts (can you tell I'm addicted to that 'narrow depth of field' look?!).

What a romantic boyfriend :)

Very very pretty dainty brown gloves from the 60s!

Posh eyeliner for my cat-eye flicks!

And finally, I can't wait to start reading this book, a gift from my boyfriend. Here is an extract from the blurb...

'In this impassioned book, Lucy Siegle champions sustainable solutions that will break the cycle of exploitative style with its heavy, secret price tag.'

It sounds like it will give me motivation to analyse my clothing consumption habits and make a few changes to how and where I buy clothes. I'll probably review it on here once I've finished reading it!

Sadie xxx

Sessun

After noticing that lots of other bloggers use a 50mm lens, I thought I'd quite like to jump on the bandwagon, so earlier this week I ordered one to go with my new camera. It arrived this morning, and I just couldn't resist testing it out straight away... even though it is supposed to be a birthday present for next week (eek, turning 20!). Since taking these photos way back in 2009, I've been itching to do some sort of similar shoot. The floaty white curtains in my room soften the light just perfectly for taking dreamy photos - and it was all wet and gloomy outside so it felt decidedly cosy indoors.

A few weeks ago I purchased this Sessun jumpsuit in the sale section of Urban Outfitters (NOT that I particularly like the idea of buying from UO; most of their stock is horrendously overpriced, and there was a big scandal recently which involved them stealing the ideas of an independent jewellery designer!). Anyway - I'm quite delighted with my purchase, which is a wonderfully high quality chambray jumpsuit with lots of nice details - pretty lined pockets and carefully covered seams, to name a few. Which is what you'd expect from a jumpsuit that originally cost £130(!!!). It seems I was in the right place at the right time - I bought it for a mere £20. Best purchase ever!

I've been waiting for the right occasion to really do it justice, and I'm quite proud of how these photos turned out, especially as I was working awkwardly with a tripod and self timer! Sorry if I come across as really vain - I promise I'm not!

What do you think of them?

Sadie xxx

Golden Hour

It sounds silly, but since buying myself a new camera, I feel so much more motivated to blog! You may have noticed that I've been rather absent from the blogosphere over the summer - working full time was probably to blame, but I'm glad I have got back into the swing of things.

Now, I know in my previous post I concluded that I simply couldn't buy any more coats... well, the very next day I bought another new coat. To be honest, it's more of a jacket than a coat, but it seems to be 'boyfriend fit' so kind of counts as a coat on someone as short as me. At £7, I did have to have a long think about it, but in the end I just couldn't put it back on the rail (which incidentally, is a wonderful vintage rail at my local Cancer Research shop).

It's quite a masculine coat, which lends itself perfectly to an outfit featuring my skinny leather tie, previously seen here. I'm also wearing my absolute favourite retro blouse, originally from Jaeger, but thrifted for £2 some time last year. Very 1940s-gentleman-goes-to-work, don't you think? Haha.

The boy and I made use of the incredibly flattering light at 'golden hour', just before sunset, to take the photos. Saved me from having to add a 'vintage glow' on photoshop!

Finally, my friend has just re-launched his photography website at stewartgiles.com - please do have a little look! He does some great fashion related shoots :).

Sadie xxx

P.S. I've just been added to MyStreetChic.com - you can find my photo here!